What O.C. Compilation Needs Is . . .

A while back in O.C. Pop Beat, I proposed that Orange County’s punk rock community organize to put out a compilation album chronicling the early history of the local punk scene. I gave my own track-by-track recommendations and asked readers to send in any suggestions to the contrary. Here they are:

Lindsey Carmichael of Corona del Mar would bag the Adolescents’ “Amoeba” (overplayed on KROQ) and “Kids of the Black Hole” (too long) and would substitute “Wrecking Crew” and “Rip It Up” from the same band (“true, super pissed-off punk rock that pertain(s) to what it was like to be part of the scene back then. I was there.”).

Carmichael further suggests adding “Reagan der Fuehrer” by D.I. and, from Social Distortion, “Another State of Mind” and “Lewd Boy,” which “just said everything to me. Not now, but then.”

From the original T.S.O.L., he suggests “Sounds of Laughter” in lieu of “I’m Tired,” which “sounds too much like that new Offspring song.” From the “Change Today?” album by the revamped T.S.O.L., he prefers “Flowers by the Door” and “It’s Gray.” Carmichael also says nix to “Urban Struggle” by the Vandals “because of the KROQ factor. It’s not that they’re a bad station; I just can’t stand to hear one of these great songs followed up by Erasure or the Cure.”

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Another correspondent, who asked that her name not be published, feels I was remiss in ignoring Agent Orange’s punked-up version of the surf classic “Pipeline.” She argues that Agent Orange’s take on the Chantays’ original is “the single greatest recording ever to come out of Orange County.”

She suggests including Agent Orange’s “Breakdown” and the instrumental version of “Bite the Hand That Feeds,” as well as “Moral Threat” by Social Distortion, a song she describes as “the quintessence of O.C. punk: big, loud, stupid, (with) an emphasis on persecution coupled with a kind of punk triumphalism, and no trace of a sense of humor.”